Those of you
who have followed our ramblings for some time now, know how much we love a good
quote. You will find throughout the writings posted here many that have to do
with edged weapons and tools. This page is reserved as a collecting place for
those previously used and those also without a sharpened edge reference. All
previously posted quotes are in red, scroll down to the bottom for the newer
ones.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred
by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes
short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions
and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails
while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."THEODORE ROOSEVELT
(Paris Sorbonne,1910)

"Sure, there's an ICBM threat, but the Space Wall --
which will cost more than it would to send every kid in America to fine schools like those the Clinton
and Bush girls attend, modernize every hospital to the standards of the ones
that look after our lawmakers so well and eliminate the thousands of ghettos that shame America -- is decades away from functioning as a viable deterrent.
And many experts say that $100 billion later, the development of this latest version of Star Wars: the defense shield will have produced nothing more than the mother of all arms races."David Hackworth

This one above reminds me of the line spoken by George
C. Scott in the movie Patton to the effect that walls are the "monument
to man's stupidity" and that they just asked to be breached one way or
another. Frank Trzaska

"The cure for drugs and alcohol addiction is to stop taking drugs. The
end of crime is in proper law and order. The secret to a good marriage is to
be faithful and resolve to work it out ...no matter what. The solution IS
simple. It takes dedication and hard work. Instead: we hire analysts to study,
bean-counters to measure; in short, we demand complexity. It is little wonder
we are sucking for oxygen."Jeff Cooper 2000

".....we live in a time when legal and constitutional principles are
under attack. What once was to a large extent a government of law has become
more and more openly a government of tribes. The edifice of civil rights has
degenerated into a naked spoils system. Hate-crime laws have come close to
outlawing undesired thought. The iron rule of political correctness has
distinct resemblance to Soviet-style social control. Much of this is imposed
less by the official government than by the meta-government of academia,
media, and Hollywood. Yet it's there."Fred Reed 2000

"All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do
nothing."Edmund Burke

"Share your fears with yourself and share your courage with others.
You will inspire people to do things that are incredible, inspire them to do
things beyond your wildest dreams."Author unknown but often quoted by CSM Franklin D. "Doug" Miller
CMOH / MACVSOG

"Old Breed, New Breed, all that matters is the Marine Breed."General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety
first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory
of life."Theodore Roosevelt.

"An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture
and not think of The Lone Ranger." Dan Rather

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is
worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to
fight: nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety: is a
miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by
the exertions and blood of better men than himself."

- John Stuart Mill

"Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our
liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.'"Samuel Adams

"Are you guys ready? Let's roll."Todd
Beamer,
Passenger on United Airlines Flight 93, just before helping to lead the
assault on the hijackers and the cockpit that led to the crash in rural
Pennsylvania instead of Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C.

"Every nation in every region now has a
decision to make: either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."George W. Bush, in a speech to a joint session of congress.

"When I take action, Iím not going
to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt.
Itís going to be decisive."George W. Bush, spoken in a September 13th 2001 Oval Office meeting with
senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York and senators John
Warner and George Allen of Virginia.

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has
given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given
us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has
given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who
serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows
the protester to burn the flag."Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC

"[W]e cannot afford to differ on the question
of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. ... Unless a man
is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how
brilliant his capacity. ...

"The weakling and the coward cannot be saved
by honesty alone; but without honesty, the brave and able man is merely a
civic wild beast who should be hunted down by every lover of righteousness.

"No man who is corrupt, no man who condones
corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community. ... 'Liar' is
just as ugly a word as 'thief,' because it implies the presence of just as
ugly a sin in one case as in the other. If a man lies under oath or procures
the lie of another under oath, if he perjures himself or suborns perjury, he
is guilty under the statute law."On May 12, 1900, then-New York Gov. Roosevelt
This one would have been great a few years ago!

"It is ... a peculiarly noble work rescuing
from oblivion those who deserve immortality,"
Pliny the Younger, the Roman writer who lived more than 2,000 years ago. By
extending the renown of those who deserve historical fame, we advance our own
national achievements and align ourselves with those who achieved that
immortality.

In the military itself, feminization has brought a
focus on feelings and self-esteem, a drastic lowering of physical standards,
the usual obsession with sexual harassment, and the conversion of the armed
services into homes for unwed mothers. In none of this is there any
comprehension of what militaries are for. Nor is there sympathy for the
competitiveness of the military male, for the urge to push limits, for
charging hard and taking chances, for the rough camaraderie of barracks and
encampment.Fred Reed

"Bombing is the worst way to kill guerrillas;
Bayonets are the best"John Paul Vann
(In light of the recent Cruise missile attacks this one arose very timely)

"When bayonets deliberate, power escapes from
the hands of the government."Napoleon I, 1848

"Under Divine blessing, we must rely on the
bayonet when firearms cannot be furnished."In a letter from Stonewall Jackson with a requisition for 1,000
pikes, 1862

"There is no weapon too short for a brave
man".
Richard Steele, in the Guardian, 1713

"The first dry rattle of new drawn steel
changes the world today".Rudyard Kipling, Before Edgehill Fight, 1911

"For the
word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged
sword...."
Hebrews 4:12

"There can not be good laws where there are
not good arms"
Machiavelli: The Prince, 1513

"The first artificer of death; the shrewd,
Contriver who first sweated at the forge,
And forcíd the blunt and yet unbloodied steel
To a keen edge and made it bright for war".
William Cowper: The Task, 1758

"The onset of bayonets in the hands of the
Valiant is irresistible".
MG John Burgoyne, 1777

"Have you not got bayonets"?
Sir George Cathcart Inkermann,1854. Uttered when his division claimed they
were low of ammunition.

"A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each
end".
A Socialist slogan from the early 20th century.

"Until the world
comes to an end the ultimate decision will rest with the sword".
Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1913

"A sword is defensive or offensive depending
on which end is pointed at you".
Aristide Briand, 1930

As Andrew Jackson once said, "It's a damn
poor mind that can't think of at least two ways to spell any word!
(It doesnít have anything to do with knives but I liked it, thank God for
spell checkers)

"I predict future happiness for Americans if
they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under
the pretense of taking care of them."
--Thomas Jefferson
No knife content it that one but it seems to be as relevant in this day and
age as much as it was when Jefferson said it, maybe even more so today.

"Our spirits are living bayonets. The ideals
which we carry in our hearts are more deadly to the enemy than any man-made
weapons."
Coningsby Dawson

"By push of bayonets, no firing until you see
the whites of their eyes"
Frederick the Great at the battle of Prague 1757

"The bullet is a mad thing, only the bayonet
knows what it is about"
Field Marshal Prince Alexander Suvorov, The Science of Victory, 1796

"The bayonet has always been the weapon of
the brave and the chief tool of victory"
Napoleon

"A man may build himself a throne of bayonets
but he cannot sit on it."
William R. Inge

"Because of the neglect of history in our
educational system, most people have no idea how many of the great American
fortunes where created by people who were born and raised in worse poverty
then the average welfare recipient today."
Thomas Sowell
Military, Vol. XVII, No. XI April 2001.
Nothing to do with knives but being a "student" of history myself it
really hit home.

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares,
often do the plowing for those who did not."
Author Unknown.
Thanks to Gerry Bennett for submitting that last pearl of wisdom.

"Polishing an old blade removes all the
original surface. This is like skinning a cat. When you are done it is still a
cat, but it is no longer much use as a pet."
Bernard Levine on the Blade Forum.
4/08/01

"Quemadnowm gladius neminem occidit,
occidentis telum est."
A sword is never a killer, it is but a tool in the killerís hands.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca 4 B.C. - 65 A.D.

".........men fell writhing and others melted
from sight. And we saw the glitter of bayonets coming against our flank. And
we heard the order to retire."Major Abner R. Small, U.S.A. First Battle of Bull Run, Manassas Va.
1861.

Gold is for the mistress - silver for the maid
Copper for the craftsman cunning in his trade.
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall
But steel - cold steel is master of them all.
Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)

"My second day as chairman, a plane I lease,
flying with engines I built, crashed into a building that I insure, and it was
covered with a network I own."
Jeff Immelt, brand new chairman of General Electric.

"Donít ever apologize for being right and
forget about being politically correct, just be correct"
Drill Instructor on Parris Island

And last but not least I was sent this one but neither I nor the sender
know where it came from other then it was attributed to President John F.
Kennedy. If you know please let me know so we can properly credit it."...our destinies are sometimes focused on the
small point of a bayonet."
President Kennedy

This one relayed to us via our good friend Joe Blandford,"It is God's place to forgive Osama bin Laden,
It is the Marines job to arrange the face to face meeting!"
Paul Harvey, December 2001

Along that line while most Americanís decry this War Against Terrorism is
not a religious war I have tried to dig into it in my limited background with
various religions. If another person tries to tell me the war is not about
Islam I will attempt to strangle that person with my bare hands. If is isnít
about Islam just what in the hell is it about??

Here are a few quotes from the King James Version of the Bible.

"He that hath no sword, let him sell his
garment and buy one."
Luke 22:36

"Think not that I am come to send peace: I
came not to send peace but a sword"
Matthew 10:34

"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ĎPut
every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate
throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his
companion, and every man his neighbor.í"
Exodus 32:27

I could not find any from the Koran which have an edged weapon in the text.
(If you know of any please forward them to me.) I did find the one most often
cited as the "reason" behind the terrorist attacks.

"Let those who fight in the cause of God who
barter the life of this world for that which is to come; for whoever fights on
Godís path, whether he is killed or triumphs, He will give him a handsome
reward."Nothing about the reputed 72 virgins there but I imagine that is
the "handsome reward??"

Murphy's Laws of Combat in Latin.

As you faithful followers of my ramblings are aware, I love a good quote.
While not a quote the following is fairly close and is profound enough to add
to our discussion list.

If the enemy is in range, so are you.
Si hostes visibilis, etiam tu.

Incoming fire has the right of way
Missiles invenientes semper potestatem viae habent

The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust
laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed, and
constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops ...
Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal
Constitution, Philadelphia (1787)

"Don't breed 'em if you can't feed 'em."
Larry Elder

"I have always been of the mind that in a
democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the Bowie
Knife."
James Russell Lowell

"The scariest thing about politics today is
not any particular policy or leaders, but the utter gullibility with which the
public accepts notions for which there is not a speck of evidence, such as the
benefits of "diversity," the dangers of "overpopulation,"
and innumerable other fashionable dogmas."Thomas Sowell 2002
This one hits close to home with us, every time we try to prove a knife is
not what others may think it is we get the shit knocked out of us. To disagree
with the established "facts" is akin to raping oneís sister. The
sentence is eternal damnation. Sometimes the folks can get pretty rough!

"One of the sad signs of our times is that we
have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and
canonized those who complain".Thomas Sowell 2002

"To fight with a sword may be brutal, but
honorable. To fight with a germ is merely disgusting."Jeff Cooperís Commentaries Vol 10 No. 3

"The officers will take all proper
opportunities to inculcate in the mens' minds a reliance on the bayonet; men
of their bodily strength and even a coward may be their match in firing. But
the bayonet in the hands of the valiant is irresistible."Lieutenant-General Burgoyne, General Orders, 20, June 1777

"Deny your soldiers a proper bayonet and you
will find a foreign one at your throat."
Attributed to an "old soldier saying." Can anyone tell me where it
originated?

"What is scary about our times is how easy it
is to get Americans to give up our most basic rights if you just use some
pretty words. You can violate the "equal protection of the laws"
provided by the 14th Amendment if you use the word "diversity" and
you can violate the free speech protections of the First Amendment if you call
it "campaign finance reform."
Thomas Sowell April 2002

"Ordinary life has been even more
disrupted by the civil war in Sri Lanka than in Israel and has been marked by
even more atrocities. Recently, there have begun to appear the first signs of
a desire on both sides for peace in Sri Lanka. This was not brought about by a
"peace process," by externally imposed cease fires or by photo ops
at the White House. It was brought about by decades of suffering by both sides
until they were exhausted."Thomas Sowell, May 2002

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever
may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they
cannot alter the state of facts and evidence . . . "John Adams

"Nothing can be made proof against a fool.
The problem is keeping fools and gadgetry separate."
Jeff Cooper

When speaking on the topic of the Iran / Iraq war;"The only thing wrong with this confrontation
is that only one side can lose."
Henry Kissinger

"The Constitution of the United States was
designed for a moral and religious people and is inadequate for the government
of any other kind"
John Adams

"The facts constitute a sharp sword.
Intelligence constitutes the bone, muscle and sinew which yield the sword.
Wisdom constitutes the will, which causes intelligence to employ the
sword."
Winston Churchill

"When a strong man armed keepeth his
palace, his goods are in peace."
Luke 12:21

Here is an extended quote from Mead about Jacksonian ideas regarding war:

For the first Jacksonian rule of war is that wars must be fought with all
available force. The use of limited force is deeply repugnant. Jacksonians
see war as a switch that is either "on" or "off." They
do not like the idea of violence on a dimmer switch. Either the stakes are
important enough to fight foróin which case you should fight with
everything you haveóor they are not, in which case you should mind your
own business and stay home. To engage in a limited war is one of the
costliest political decisions an American president can makeóneither
Truman nor Johnson survived it.

The second key concept in Jacksonian thought about war is that the
strategic and tactical objective of American forces is to impose our will on
the enemy with as few American casualties as possible. The Jacksonian code
of military honor does not turn war into sport. It is a deadly and earnest
business. This is not the chivalry of a medieval joust, or of the orderly
battlefields of eighteenth-century Europe. One does not take risks with
soldiersí lives to give a "fair fight." Some sectors of opinion
in the United States and abroad were both shocked and appalled during the
Gulf and Kosovo wars over the way in which American forces attacked the
enemy from the air without engaging in much ground combat. The "turkey
shoot" quality of the closing moments of the war against Iraq created a
particularly painful impression. Jacksonians dismiss such thoughts out of
hand. It is the obvious duty of American leaders to crush the forces arrayed
against us as quickly, thoroughly and professionally as possible.

In the last five months of World War II, American bombing raids claimed the
lives of more than 900,000 Japanese civiliansónot counting the casualties
from the atomic strikes against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is more than
twice the total number of combat deaths that the United States has suffered in
all its foreign wars combined.

On one night, that of March 9-10, 1945, 234 Superfortresses dropped 1,167 tons
of incendiary bombs over downtown Tokyo; 83,793 Japanese bodies were found in
the charred remainsóa number greater than the 80,942 combat fatalities that
the United States sustained in the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined.

Since the Second World War, the United States has continued to employ
devastating force against both civilian and military targets. Out of a pre-war
population of 9.49 million, an estimated 1 million North Korean civilians are
believed to have died as a result of U.S. actions during the 1950-53 conflict.
During the same war, 33,870 American soldiers died in combat, meaning that
U.S. forces killed approximately thirty North Korean civilians for every
American soldier who died in action. The United States dropped almost three
times as much explosive tonnage in the Vietnam War as was used in the Second
World War, and something on the order of 365,000 Vietnamese civilians are
believed to have been killed during the period of American involvement.

Regardless of Clausewitzís admonition that "casualty reports . . . are
never accurate, seldom truthful, and in most cases deliberately
falsified", these numbers are too striking to ignore. They do not, of
course, suggest a moral parallel between the behavior of, say, German and
Japanese aggressors and American forces seeking to defeat those aggressors in
the shortest possible time. German and Japanese forces used the indiscriminate
murder of civilians as a routine police tool in occupied territory, and
wholesale massacres of civilians often accompanied German and Japanese
advances into new territory. The behavior of the German Einsatzgruppen and of
the Japanese army during the Rape of Nanking has no significant parallel on
the American side.

In the Cold War, too, the evils the Americans fought were far worse than those
they inflicted. Tens of millions more innocent civilians in communist nations
were murdered by their own governments in peacetime than ever died as the
result of American attempts to halt communismís spread. War, even brutal
war, was more merciful than communist rule.
Walter Russell Mead

"I believe that political correctness is the scourge of modern
mankind, underpinned with nothing more than semantics, innuendo, touchy feely,
if we ignore it it will go away, so stick your head in the sand, symbolism
over substance."
Charlie Daniels

"If history teaches anything, it teaches that simple-minded
appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the
betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom."
Ronald Reagan, 1983

"War is a Racket. It always has been." (See the commentary
section for more)
Smedley D. Butler

"Well, think about it," he said. "They blew up a couple of
our best buildings full of lawyers, killed several thousand people, made fools
of the US to the whole world, and about crippled the airlines and hotels. Then
they made us spend billions on Afghanistan and more billions on stupid
security stuff for airports and you still can't get on an airplane
without hopping around barefoot like a damn fool, and the FBI gets to spy on
us three times as much as it used to. Now we're waiting for the A-bomb to go
off somewhere and fry everybody's catfish. So we got mad and blew up some mud
huts and never did catch anybody important." "It's a good thing we
won. Suppose we'd lost?"
Fred Reed 6/17/02

Sometimes, when I look at all my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you
should have stayed a virgin.'"
- Lillian Carter

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from
the government and I'm here to help.'"
-Ronald Reagan

One Sword keeps another in it's sheath.
George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs...
Shakespeare: King John, ii, 2, 1596

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain.

Shakespeare: Macbeth

Rangers of Connaught! It is not my intention to expend any powder this
evening. We'll do this business with Cold Steel.

General Sir Thomas Picton, 6 April 1812 to the 88th Foot before the assault
on Badajoz.

I beg leave to remind the Cavalry Board that very few people have ever
been killed with the bayonet or sabre, but the fear of having their guts
explored with Cold Steel in the hands of battle maddened men has won many a
fight.

General George S. Patton, The Patton Papers Vol II.

If your close enough to stick 'em, you're close enough to shoot 'em!

Bill Maudlin, via "Willie and Joe"

Reporter at news conference in Washington:General, what would you ever use a 20,000 lb. bomb for?

Reply from General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:To kill people, next question!

He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.

Luke, 16:36

"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the
night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

George Orwell

It's funny how much feminism resembles a rejection of everything
feminine, almost like vicarious male-chauvinism. A woman who works sixty-hour
weeks in some depressing law firm is a hero (feminists don't like the feminine
"heroine") but a woman who raises her children is an embarrassment.
Which is more important? Continuing the species? Or having another lawyer?

Fred Reed 5/03

Memo to Leftist media outlets: Hamas is a terrorist organization, not a
"political party." Learn the difference and quit trying to redefine
the lexicon. We don't care how many Nobel "Peace" Prizes are awarded
to Yasser Arafat, he is the most notorious terrorist in the Middle East!

Mark Alexander 06/03

The martyr may get 70 virgins, lets just hope they are mean, nasty,
retired nuns who taught school for 50 years!! And besides that, what makes you
think any of the suicide bombers will even get into heaven? Remember whose
standing post on the streets of heaven, the USMC.

Unknown

Despite the squeaking of those who would have it otherwise, the United
States of America remains the last free nation on earth. God made it so. The
Bill of Rights keeps it so. And the National Rifle Association keeps that so.

Jeff Cooper 8/03

"

For men of understanding do not say that the sword is to
blame for murder, nor wine for drunkenness, nor strength for outrage, nor
courage for foolhardiness, but they lay the blame on those who make an
improper use of the gifts which have been bestowed upon them by God, and
punish them accordingly."

St. John Chrysostom (circa 341-410 A.D.), from "Treatise on the
Priesthood,"

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the
women come out to cut up your remains, just roll to your rifle and blow out
your brains, and go to your god like a soldier."

Rudyard Kipling

"Islam is a religion in which Allah (God) requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sent His Son to die for you."

John Ashcroft

Now "Judges" tells us that Samson used the jawbone of an
"ass" to slay thousands. Luckily this method of improvised weaponry
has fallen into dis-use. If not, think of the multitudes who would be walking
around totally void of the ability to speak, chew, spit, and keep their
tongues firmly planted.

Unknown

"One weekend a month my ass!"

Marine Reservist in Iraq

"Onward we stagger, and if the tanks come, may God help the tanks."

Col. William O. Darby, U.S. Rangers

To cry to a ruler of gathering war!
Slowly he led to a peach-tree small,
That grew by a cleft of the city wall.
And he said to the boy: `They shall praise thy zeal
So long as the red spurt follows the steel.

Rudyard Kipling "The Ballad of the King's Jest"

To-day, across our fathers' graves,
The astonished years reveal
The remnant of that desperate host
Which cleansed our East with steel.
Hail and farewell! We greet you here,

With tears that none will scorn--
O Keepers of the House of old,
Or ever we were born!
One service more we dare to ask--
Pray for us, heroes, pray,
That when Fate lays on us our task
We do not shame the Day!

Rudyard Kipling, The Veterans, 1907

Thank Heaven! At last the trumpets peal
Before our strength gives way.
For King or for the Commonweal--
No matter which they say,
The first dry rattle of new-drawn steel
Changes the world to-day!

Rudyard Kipling, Edgehill Fight

"Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered. Yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the
triumph."

Thomas Paine

One day, men will "beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
[and] neither shall they learn war anymore."

"Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been used by
those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or example. But inevitably
they fail, either because men are not afraid to die for a life worth living,
or because the terrorists themselves came to realize that free men cannot be
frightened by threats, and that aggression would meet its own response. And it
is in the light of that history that every nation today should know, be he
friend or foe, that the United States has both the will and the weapons to
join free men in standing up to their responsibilities."

John F. Kennedy 1961

"We fill the universities with people who have no business being there.
We then accept their values."

Fred Reed 1/6/04

from Julius Caesar, is:Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste death but once.
Of all the wonders that I have yet heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it come.

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it
more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote
welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to
repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that
do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that
impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to
discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined
whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked
for neglecting my constituents' interests, I shall reply that I was informed
their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best
I can." Ė

Barry Goldwater

"To act in concert with a great man is the first of
blessings."

Marquis de Lafayette, 1778 in a letter to George Washington

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight -
it's the size of the fight in the dog."

"Television bathes us all in the moral and cultural drains from
which there is no escape."

Fred Reed 1/6/04

"There is no such thing as equality. It is a beautiful and worthy
ideal, but highly impractical as it discriminates against those who excel at
what they do."

Unknown

"If it wasn't for the murders, Washington would have one of the
lowest crime rates."

Marion Barry, Mayor of Washington, D.C.

From the speech; The Strenuous Life. In Rooseveltís view inaction and
isolation were unthinkable;

"If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and
ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where man must win at
hazard of their lives and at risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and
stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination
of the world."

Theodore Roosevelt

... you could follow the advice of Meg Whitman (president of eBay). She
says that if you cannot tell whether an item is authentic or not, it should
not matter to you whether it is authentic or not. Although this is cynical and
self-serving on her part, it does make a perverse kind of sense. If a person
is too busy, or lazy, or vain (the usual culprit) to learn what is real, then
fakes are what he deserves. One could even argue that fakes serve a useful
function, in distracting this sort of dabbler away from real items they won't
appreciate anyway. In the immortal words of David Petty, "I never show a
real bowie knife to a man who buys fakes."

Bernard Levine

No scientific study shows that organic foods are safer, healthier or
more nutritious than conventional foods. The "organic" label only
means that the products were raised inefficiently without benefit of several
modern technologies.

Milk -- whether organic, conventional or conventional produced without use of
rbST -- is all the same stuff. Marketing and labels that imply otherwise
hardly educate the public. Mostly, they line the pockets of the companies
selling them at a premium -- as much as twice the price of conventional milk.Steven Milloy, Junk Science

We as a nation had better support the War on Terror idea or start
looking for deals on prayer rugs and figure out which way is East.

Unknown

Women dominate domestic politics and so we have the Fear State. With them
security security security trumps liberty or taking chances of any sort, and
so we must ban pocket knives. They are afraid of guns, want kids to wear
helmets on bikes, and think tag is a violent and dangerous game.

Fred Reed 9/24/06

Putting unarmed national guardsmen on the border is another cosmetic move,
a placebo instead of real medicine. The excuse is that it is not possible to
train more than 1,500 border patrol agents a year. Meanwhile, we have trained
well over 200,000 Iraqi security forces while guerilla warfare raged around
them.

Thomas Sowell

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes
here does in good faith become an American and assimilates himself to us, he
shall be treated on an exact equality with every one else, for it is an
outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birthplace or
origin. But this is predicated upon the manís becoming in very fact an
American and nothing but an American.

If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated
from the rest of America, then he isn't doing his part as an American."